


The Long Way Home

by weestarmeggie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Minor Character Death, Smut, Teacher-Student Relationship, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:34:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23583898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weestarmeggie/pseuds/weestarmeggie
Summary: What's a little timetravel between Soulmates?
Relationships: Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy, Narcissa Black Malfoy/Theodore Nott
Comments: 31
Kudos: 57
Collections: Sing Me a Rare: The Mash-Ups





	The Long Way Home

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sing-Me-A-Rare: Mash Ups. Much love to my Beta and Alpha who shall remain nameless for the moment. Song Prompts - Death By A Thousand Cuts- Taylor Swift and Perfect Drug - Nine Inch Nails.

_**Chandelier still flickering here** _

_**'Cause I can't pretend it's okay when it's not** _

* * *

"So what you're saying, is that you've no idea how or why you're here, only that you've nowhere else to go and if we turn you out you're sure to be captured and killed by the wizard calling himself Voldemort?"

Theo looked between his much younger and very much alive Headmaster, and transfiguration professor. The transfiguration professor, who apparently, had been quite a looker in her heyday which ironically was when Theo had apparently time-travelled to. They shared a look and Theo grimaced at their obvious distrust.

He blamed Blaise.

Or perhaps even Draco.

What was that muggle saying he'd heard more in the one year since the war had ended than in the previous eighteen years of his life? It was always the quiet ones?

And both his best mates were sneaky enough to have set this whole thing up.

Dumbledore was spinning the paperweight that had brought Theo back, _and_ transported him up the country from his vault in Gringotts, in his hands, murmuring beneath his breath as he twisted it one way then another.

"I can tell you his real name if you'd prefer?" Theo chanced. Dumbledore glanced at him sharply and Theo rolled his eyes. "Thats a no then."

"Yes. I'm afraid it is quite emphatically a no."

Theo nodded and shifted in the chair he'd been shoved in as soon as he'd appeared twenty years in the past. He rolled his shirt sleeves to his elbows without thought and combed a hand through his hair, then tried not to scowl when they visibly relaxed at the sight of his bare forearm, and bit at the inside of his cheek instead.

"Right well. Any idea on a. how to get me home? Or b. what I'm going to do while I'm here?" He peered up at his captors and blinked when he caught them staring at his wrist. "What?"

"You haven't met them yet?" At Theo's confused look Dumbledore clarified with a nod at his wrist, "your soulmate."

Theo flicked his eyes from his wrist to their faces and shrugged. "No. It's been counting down since my —"

"Eighteenth birthday," McGongall interrupted, "we know."

"Ok." He waved a hand between them. "Anyway."

"And you haven't counted down the days?"

Theo's eyebrows furrowed and he stared down at his mark. Why were they so interested in his soulmate? "No."

"How much time is left Albus?"

Theo glanced at his numbers.

442080

"A little over three hundred odd days," the older wizard replied, breathing a sigh of relief. "Nothing to worry about then," he smiled. "I'm sure your soulmate is back in your present just waiting to reconnect with you. Statistically speaking it's someone you've already met." Theo blinked at the man and wondered if he thought he was being charming.

"Minerva, why don't you take young Theo here along to the staff quarters and get him sorted into Professor Fawley's old rooms." Theo stood and the headmaster came around the desk. He gripped his shoulder with one hand, like he was a little kid, and guided him towards the door where Professor McGonagall was already waiting. "His rooms are on the smaller side but I'm sure you'll make do," he smiled, squeezing Theo's shoulder before disappearing behind a slammed door, leaving Theo to wander the empty castle alongside a witch he'd last seen both two years ago _and_ twenty years in the future.

"We'll pass you off as a nephew of mine," she said as they descended the grand staircase. Her eyes flicked to his hair and she nodded. "On my husband's side. You've got Carrick's hair well enough."

He pushed a hand through said hair as they took a hard left at the library and entered a corridor Theo had never seen in his entire Hogwarts career. "Thanks?"

"You can have his surname too."

"Well that makes sense," he added without thought and when he realised just who he was giving back chat to, glanced up with a sheepish smile and a shrug. "Sorry."

"Hmmm. Definitely a McGregor," she said, coming to a stop outside of what Theo correctly presumed, would be his rooms.

"The students arrive tomorrow. Come to my office after breakfast and we'll get your mastery paperwork sorted and sent off to the Ministry. By the time I'm done with you you'll at least be well prepared to achieve it whether it be in this decade or one down the line."

Theo could only jerk his head in thanks before the older witch glanced over him once and nodded. She turned on her heel and strode off down the dark corridor, the fire from a nearby brazier on the corner the only thing flickering light against the cold castle walls. "What if I —" He called after her though he words caught in his throat and he swallowed when the older witch turned to look at him, one eyebrow lifted questioningly. "What if I'm stuck here? What if you and Dumbledore don't find a way to send me home?"

Her eyebrow fell and she smiled at him, barely suppressing a chuckle. "Oh lad. You'll be going home. The only thing that might change is how you get home."

"How I get home?" Theo asked with a frown and Minerva turned to look at him head on as opposed to over her shoulder.

She nodded and smirked. "Oh yes. If Albus can't fix that fancy bauble of yours well I'll drag you to the ministry, down into the department of mysteries and toss a time turner around your neck myself." She grinned, reminding Theo of a shark he'd once seen in his muggle studies textbook from eighth year. "Goodnight."

* * *

_**I see you everywhere, the only thing we share** _

_**Is this small town** _

* * *

The first time Narcissa saw him, was also the first time that anyone saw him, because a discussion in the dungeon later that night revealed that none of them had ever laid eyes upon him before, was at dinner on the first of September the beginning of her seventh year.

There was no announcement about who he was, what his role was, why he was there — nothing. But still, Narcissa could not stop staring at him.

She was, at the time, simply a face in the crowd to him.

In the days following his sudden appearance, it was announced that he would be tutoring under Professor McGonagall for his transfiguration mastery, an unprecedented turn of events since their strict professor and the head of Gryffindor house had never before taken on an apprentice.

"I heard that he's her nephew from France." Narcissa glanced at Hayley Boyle, fourth year Irish muggleborn from Gryffindor, who was sitting at the table next to theirs in the library.

"I heard that he's her lover. That she's keeping him here so as not to arouse suspicion with her husband." She snorted at that observation from Eliza Travers.

"Yes," Narcissa's own best friend Elena, drawled from beside her, not even looking up from the arithmancy text she was reading, "because that makes perfect sense." She closed the book and glanced at the two girls who hadn't quite been _whispering_. "Bring your toy boy lover to a school with over a thousand students to _hide him_." She rolled her eyes and Narcissa snorted, standing.

Her face fell and she felt the pink on her cheeks warm when she caught sight of the subject of their gossip staring at her and Elena.

He cleared his throat, shut his book, ducked his head and swept past them with a quietly murmured "ladies."

"Oh fuck," Elena sighed.

"Language," Narcissa replied instantly, but she turned to her best friend with a wince and nodded anyway.

_Fuck_ indeed.

* * *

_**My soul is so afraid to realize** _

_**How very little there is left of me** _

* * *

It's an odd thing Theo thought, being confronted with the woman who grew up to be your best friend's mother. The woman you've spent almost your entire teenage years fantasising about and then you somehow end up thrust back in time and have to put up with her acting and behaving like the schoolgirl she was.

Narcissa Black wore red lip tint but barely any other _obvious_ cosmetics and almost every seventh year boy was after her attention in one way or the other. Theo remembered that she was betrothed to Lucius and even though the older boy had left school already and she was essentially free to do as she pleased until they were bound, she was never one of the miscreants he caught tumbling out of broom closets whilst on patrol.

Neither for that fact was her best friend and his own mother.

He watched Elena Rosier without thought and pulled Minerva to the side one evening when the older witch and his mentor caught him staring for the third time that week. She could only pat him on the shoulder frowning all the while, though she did apologise for his loss and sent him off to his quarters with a bottle of fire whiskey that Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother and her summer fling before she settled down, had given her for Christmas years ago.

Theo thought he could have done without that bit of information.

"This is a thirty year old bottle of fire whiskey," he gaped, shoving it back into her arms. "You can't just give this to me." She snapped her fingers and the bottle hovered between them.

"Are you trying to tell me what I can and can't do Theodore?"

"I really hate when you do that."

"Because I would have to inform you that I've not let a man try and tell me what to do for close to a decade." She dragged her eyes over him, judging him and Theo could only scowl up at her. "And I'm not about to start letting you."

"It's not just her," he murmured, snatching the bottle out of the air and conjuring the pair of them, a shot glass each.

"Impressive," Minerva remarked and Theo nodded.

"Thanks." He poured them each a shot then drained his own and refilled the glass. "I know I can't tell you about what's coming."

She glanced at him sharply. "No. You may not."

He nodded. "I know. But it's still hard for me to see people everyday when i know that they're not even alive in the future. Or that they've become my own professor. Or famous in completely different ways." She continued to glare at him and Theo stood with a sigh. When he reached the door he turned and pointed at her, clutching the bottle of firewhiskey to his chest like a lifeline. "You're no fun."

"You can't change the past Theo. Time is a closed loop and everything you do now has already happened. It would only hurt you to try and save those that have already been lost to time."

He thought of how pale and frail his mother had been on his third birthday when they'd celebrated the occasion on his parents' bed with only the house elves in attendance serving them tea and cake and nodded, closing her door gently behind him.

* * *

_**My heart, my hips, my body, my love** _

_**Tryna find a part of me that you didn't touch** _

* * *

"You're him."

It took Theo a second to realise what she could be talking about. "Narcissa."

"Look." She thrust her arm in his direction and swallowed as he pointedly avoided looking at the timer on the inside of her wrist. The one that had appeared only ten minutes ago and which was in its last minute.

There was no one else it could be. She'd known it wouldn't be Lucius and when it had appeared she'd flown up from the dungeons straight to where she knew his rooms would be.

"I want to see yours," she said, determined to see this through.

To make him see her.

It didn't really matter that he was essentially her teacher because she was eighteen now, finishing school in a matter of weeks and he was only a year older than her anyway. She'd heard him telling some of the faculty that he'd yet to celebrate his twentieth birthday.

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "Now Theo."

It was the first time she'd said his name and it must have softened something in him because he glanced from her wrist to her face and sighed. Forty seconds till zero.

Forty seconds until they touched.

Thirty-seven.

Thirty-six.

She watched him roll up his sleeves and present his own wrist for her observation. She stepped forward slowly and turned her head so she could see his time before lifting her own arm alongside his.

The seconds counted down and when there were only ten left, Narcissa lifted her head to watch his face only to find him already looking down at her, his eyes flicking from her eyes to her lips where they lingered and then he was wrapping an arm around her waist and his other hand was cupping her jaw and the spark she felt thrum through her at the touch of his skin, forced a gasp from her mouth. He hauled her against him, stumbling back into his rooms and falling back onto the large bed that took up most of the space.

Narcissa climbed atop him, school skirt hunched up over her thighs and Theo groaned when he caught sight of her thigh highs.

"Merlin."

* * *

Theo had thought about sleeping with his best friend's mother since he'd been a teenager and discovered a use for his prick besides pissing, but in all his fantasies she'd been elegant and indulgent and restrained as he'd fumbled like the school boy he was but now…

Now she was tearing at his shirt and sucking a path down his neck and rocking over his erection like an eager schoolgirl desperate to please her professor.

Which she was.

_Which he was._

She sucked a particularly hard kiss onto his neck and he growled, turning her in his arms to pin her beneath him.

Her blonde hair splayed on his pillow and Theo's breath caught as he gazed down at her.

He'd never thought much about the timer on his wrist. It had always been such a large number and when he'd been thrust into the past he'd assumed he'd be home before he met them.

"Theo." His eyes snapped to meet Narcissa's, who was staring up at him, her eyebrows furrowed, lips parted as she panted. Her hand cupped his jaw and when her thumb traced his lips, Theo let himself press a kiss to the pad of it. "Are you ok?"

Narcissa married Lucius and gave birth to his best friend.

She wasn't his to keep permanently, but she was at his until he either left or -

"I'm perfect." His eyes dragged over the length of her, watching as she unbuttoned her school blouse and revealing her naked chest to him. Perky breasts that filled his hand when he squeezed, thumbing her nipples into hard little peaks. He mouthed at the curve of them and slipped his hand beneath her skirt and groaned when he was met with the wet warmth of her underwear. "Fuck."

She smirked up at him and slipped her own hand into the placket of his trousers and wrapped it around his length. "That's the idea, yeah."

"So fucking mouthy," he muttered, tugging her underwear and then her skirt down until she was left naked on his bed and he could do nothing but kick his trousers off and press himself into her with one firm thrust.

"Theo!"

"Fuck!" His eyes snapped up to meet hers. "You're a virgin?!" His eyes rolled into the back of his skull and he started reciting Gamps five laws. When he'd caught himself he glared down at her, breathing heavily. "You should have —"

She shook her head and rolled her hips. "It doesn't matter," she groaned. "Fuck you're so big!" She whined and Theo snorted. He pulled back and tugged her onto his lap. He tapped her thigh and she wrapped her legs around his waist, crossing her ankles behind her back and sinking down further on his cock. "Gods."

"You're so fucking perfect. So fucking pretty and -" she rolled her hips again and Theo huffed at her. "This will be over much quicker than either one of us wants if you don't stop that."

Her lips tugged into a smirk as she rolled them again and Theo bit down into the juncture of her neck as he leaned forward and began to fuck her with earnest.

* * *

_**And what once was ours** _

_**Is no one's now** _

* * *

"You're going to be late for your exam," Narcissa murmured, though she made no effort to pull away from him. Theo had snagged her by the wrist and pulled her into an alcove after breakfast when she was on her way to charms. He'd been pressing kisses to her throat for the past few minutes but the last bell was chiming through the corridors and she pulled back to smirk at him.

"I just needed some good luck," he sighed.

"Ah ha," she laughed. She smoothed the hands that had been wrapped around his neck down his chest, fixing his lapels. She leaned up and pressed a final kiss to the corner of his mouth. "You'll be fine. Your aunt wouldn't be sending you to the ministry if she didn't think you were ready."

He blinked down at her and nodded slowly. "Yeah… Yeah." He swallowed. "Ok go. I'll see you this evening." He stepped back and ducked his head out of the alcove to check it was clear before he turned to her with a grin and nudged her into the empty corridor.

Elena kept glancing at her throughout their shared lessons and she had to school her expression on more than one occasion, even ducking into the library for the afternoon after lunch to avoid her friends questioning stare. She'd spent a lot of time in the 'library' since she and Theo had discovered one another.

It was only when the bell began to chime for curfew that Narcissa realised she'd spent much longer than she'd intended in the library and that not only had she missed dinner, but that Theo wasn't back either.

She gathered her belongings up and was making her way to the dungeons, placating her wandering mind with simple reasons for why he hadn't shown up, when she walked straight into her transfiguration professor. "Oh sor —" she started but at McGonagall's suddenly pale face she swallowed the fear in her stomach and asked, "what happened?"

* * *

_**The arrow goes straight through my heart** _

_**Without you everything just falls apart** _

* * *

The day Draco was born was the happiest she'd been in years. She'd grown to love Lucius over the years and whilst their marriage had been based on a contract, there was genuine love and affection between the two of them.

When Elena had her baby not six weeks later, Narcissa knew her best friend hadn't named him for their transfiguration TA but simply for Thoros' own father.

Still, it was a shock to her system and it took weeks for her to put _Theo McGregor_ back in the box she'd locked him away in when he'd left her.

And when Elena died a few years later, she mourned her friend and moved on with her and Lucius and Draco's lives and forgot all about the black haired babe named for her soulmate.

* * *

_**I get drunk, but it's not enough** _

_**'Cause the morning comes and you're not my baby** _

* * *

Narcissa really hated visiting Evelyn Parkinson.

Each and every time she did, the woman would impress upon her how sure she was that Draco and Pansy would surely be one anothers soulmates.

Once, Draco had been in the room when she'd said it and the look of sheer terror that had flashed upon his face had assured her that they would most definitely not belong to one another. She'd told Lucius to destroy the contract he and Gerald had spent the afternoon drawing up and that he was to never ever proceed with another one without Draco's explicit permission.

She wouldn't force him to be with someone, no matter how much it benefited their vault accounts.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice the dark haired young man that was being chased around the foyer by her son until he ran head first into her. She looked down to see none other than the soulmate she'd believed had been ripped from her so long ago peering back up at her.

"Sorry ," he grinned up at her, turning on his heel and vanishing down a corridor as Draco skipped past her and after him.

She didn't recall how she made it to her chambers after that, only that Tilly had kept her plied with wine the entire evening.

* * *

_**And I want you** _

_**You are the perfect drug** _

* * *

There was a goblin standing over him when he opened his eyes. "You were gone an awfully long time Master Nott."

Theo blinked and glanced at the paperweight still clasped in his hand. He let it go and watched it roll away before sitting up and scrubbing a hand over his face.

Fucking Dumbledore and his machinations. He couldn't have just informed Theo he'd found a way for him to go home, oh no. That would be too simple.

The goblin before him passed him a glass of water (from where Theo knew better than to ask) and Theo drank it.

"How long was I gone?" He managed to ask after a moment. The goblin took the glass from him and helped him stand. Theo blinked at the strength contained in such a tiny grip and wiped his hands over his slacks.

"Oh," he replied. "Only a few hours I'm assuming. It's just gone four. I came down to check on you when you missed our appointment at one and though your body was gone your magical signature hadn't left the vault. I've been standing guard since."

Theo blinked and then gathered himself. "Fuck." He summoned his wand and then his jacket, pocketing the troublesome paperweight before striding quickly from the vault, his account manager toddling after him. "I need to go," he said when he reached the cart. His eyes flicked to his bare wrist and he swallowed, pushing a hand through his hair and wondering just what the fuck he was going to say to Narcissa when he saw her. "Family emergency," he grunted when the goblin arrived by his side.

They hopped into the cart and as the cart ascended Theo hoped and prayed to Gods, both magical and muggle, that Narcissa would forgive him for everything.

* * *

_**I got my heart but my heart's no good** _

_**You're the only one that's understood** _

* * *

Narcissa was taking tea in the conservatory when the wards collapsed and she heard the floo flare. Her hands shook with fear, though not the same fear that she'd faced on a daily basis just a few short years ago. She carefully placed her teacup back on the saucer and sat the set on the table before her as she heard the footsteps of her guest echo through the newly refurbished townhouse.

He burst through the doors, gasping and Narcissa swallowed at the sight of him. It had been twenty-one years, eleven months and five days since Theo Mcgregor had simply disappeared from her life, but the pull to go to him was as strong as it had been since the day of her eighteenth birthday. He stood and straightened the tails of his shirt and shoved his sleeves up as he stared at her.

Narcissa briefly considered all the reasons she should tell him to leave immediately, the most pressing being that not only was he only nineteen, but that he was also her son's best friend and the thought of hurting Draco ever again made her heart ache and her breath hitch.

Theo stepped forward and she stood, suddenly, lifting her arms out in front of her, "Stop."

He ignored her, stepping further into the room, his eyes blazing; with lust or fury she wasn't sure. "Theo."

"You've known. All this time you've known who I am."

She nodded once. "I...Elena was my very best friend. She married your father right out of school and fell pregnant with you within the year."

"Like you."

She flashed her eyes at him and jerked her head. "Like me." She really didn't want to talk about Lucius. She didn't want to talk about any of this. "When she named you Theodore, I — It's a very traditional name. I never gave it much thought other than that it suited your demeanour perfectly. You were a very cuddly baby."

She watched him wince and cross to the sideboard and pour himself a large glass of firewhiskey, drain it, then pour two more. He walked towards her and thrust the tumbler in her direction.

"Thanks," she murmured, carefully taking the glass from his hands without touching him.

He jerked his head and leaned against the wall opposite her. "I'm guessing we're both going to need it." He scrubbed a hand over his face and met her eye. "Go on."

"After your mother died I didn't see you anywhere near as much. You remember what your father was like and, well, it was only when you came home with Draco the summer after second year that I even realised."

"You should have told me."

Narcissa scoffed and rolled her eyes. She sipped at her whiskey and shook her head. "You were a child." She looked up and met his eye. "You're still a child."

"Don't even fucking try it Narcissa," he hissed, draining his glass and stalking towards her.

"I'm not eighteen anymore Theo. I'm," she waved a hand dismissively, "old and lumpy and —"

"Beautiful."

Her eyes fluttered shut and she swallowed then whispered, "Theo."

"No listen." She heard him move and then his hands, for the first time in over twenty years, were threading through hers and his thumb was stroking the inside of her wrist, right over the scar that had once been her timer.

"You are. I've had a crush on you since I was fifteen but you were always," he broke off laughing, " _always_ this ethereal unattainable fantasy and nothing more. And this past year," — her eyes snapped open. A year? She'd seen him last night when he'd stopped by with Draco to pick up some decorations — "has been so fucking hard.

"Out of everyone I met back then you were the only one I really knew, and lying to you?" He squeezed his eyes shut and drew in a raggedy breath. "I'm sorry I disappeared. I'm sorry I left you without any explanation. I never meant for any of this to happen."

He pressed his fingers into her skin and she looked down to see him watching her. His eyes dark and flickering from her eyes to her lips. "Merlin you were a right tease when you were younger. Flouncing about in those short skirts beneath your robes." Her tongue flicked out and swiped across her lips. She wasn't even aware of the action until Theo reached up and pressed one thumb into her mouth. Her lips wrapped around it and her tongue flicked against the pad of it and something akin to a growl escaped Theo's throat as he leaned up and muttered, "still a right tease now too," and replaced his thumb with his tongue.

"You used to walk around with your shirt sleeves pushed up," Narcissa murmured into his mouth, stroking her hands over his chest, pulling his shirt open. "Made all the girls swoon."

Theo snorted as he nudged her onto her back. He stroked his hands up the smooth skin of her legs and when he reached the hem of her dress he met her eye, fingers stroking the inside of her knee. "I wasn't trying." he pulled back and swiped his fingers higher. "Is this ok?"

She nodded and Theo watched her close her eyes and drop her head back against the arm of the sofa he'd backed her onto. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and heard him groan.

"You're so fucking pretty." His hands reached the apex of her thighs and his thumbs brushed over the silk of her underwear. "You're wet."

"So wet," she agreed. She leaned up on her elbows and watched him shuffle down the couch. He tugged her underwear down and slid his fingers over her labia before pressing forward and flicking his tongue over her clit. Her hips bucked and Theo pressed his arm across her stomach to hold her in place.

"Theo." He crooked two fingers into her, latching onto her clit and sucking hard as he nudged the spongy spot he'd spent the past two weeks familiarising himself with. "Fuck."

"Come on love," he teased. "Please come for me." He flicked his eyes up to meet hers and Narcissa could see that he was rutting against the couch himself, eager for any sort of relief and it was the sight of his desperation more than anything that sent her spiralling over the edge too.

His want for her had always been visceral.

She pulled him up and kissed him when she caught her breath and Theo loved that she still didn't care about tasting herself on his lips. "I missed you so much," she muttered.

Theo closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't even —" He pulled back with a breath and looked her over as he fixed himself beside her, lying face to face with her and hitched her leg over his hip. "Dumbledore didn't warn me. He just thrust this," — he reached into his pocket for the paperweight that had started all of this and weighed it in his palm — "into my hands and I reappeared in my vault at Gringotts." Narcissa nodded and peered up at him.

"I thought you were dead," she whispered. "I asked Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore too, where you'd gone but they'd only ever palmed me off." She swallowed and averted her eyes and Theo noticed that she was very nearly crying. "Part of me thought you'd left me on purpose."

"Never."

She nodded. "I know," her eyes flicked up to him and she smirked. "Now. Then?" She shrugged. "Well. That same part of me married Lucius to spite you."

He snorted and sighed, nuzzling her face and brushing a kiss to her forehead. "I'm glad you had someone. And I'll always be glad for Draco. Even if he is an arsehole."

Narcissa snorted and clenched her hands in his shirt as if he'd vanish at any second. "No doubt."

"I am sorry Lucius died and I wasn't here."

"I'm sorry he died too. And you were here." She peered up at him and her fingertips stroked over his jaw reminding Theo of his pressing erection. "But you're right," she sighed, "it certainly makes things less awkward now."

"Hmmm," he snorted. "No messy divorce needed." They sat in silence for a few minutes, simply enjoying the presence of the other when the floo sounded and Draco's voice carried from the foyer downstairs. "Shit." He dropped his head to Narcissa's and groaned, though he was smiling. "I was really hoping to avoid this conversation for a few more days."

"He's not very patient," Narcissa snorted, standing and sweeping her wand over herself.

"No," Theo agreed, standing and tugging her to him. He pressed a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth and his eyes flicked over her face before they met hers. "He's not."

"Plus it's his birthday," she added. "And I'm sure you promised to help him organise it. Since it's his big day and everything."

"Big day?" Theo asked, standing and fixing himself. Draco's footsteps were getting closer. Narcissa met his eye then looked pointedly at his wrist. "Oh. Wow." She hummed and he stepped up behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist, ready to face Draco together. "I wonder who it is."


End file.
